It's Not That Bad
by LuxaLovesLawnmowers
Summary: Kakashi gets back from a long mission. His friends are about to find out that something has changed...Non/slash


Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto or Kakashi's head.

Hi! This is a little oneshot I wrote to distract me from the angstyness of my other fanfics. I like it quite a lot, and it is about Kakashi and his friends. And something else. This is not really yaoi, but there are kind-of suggestions of it (and not about Kakashi). In fact, they are really rather obscure. This isn't slash at all.

I need to shorten this. Sorry. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

* * *

The ninja team limped back into the village. Though they were injured, on the whole they were happy to be back in their village after such a long time.

Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Genma Shiranui, and Izumo Kamizuki staggered into the village. They had been on a mission for months. Kotetsu Hagane, the guard, gave a cry of joy when he saw he partner and comrades.

Izumo looked up, a smile flickering over his face. "Kotetsu!"

They hugged, and Guy, though exhausted, burst into tears at the manly embrace.

"Such youth!"

Kakashi and Genma couldn't help but roll their eyes. When neither Kotetsu nor Izumo let go, and they realized their suspicions about the duo were true, they cleared their throats loudly.

"Hey, Izumo, the mission report?" rasped Kakashi pointedly.

Izumo let go of Kotetsu and blushed. Kotetsu caught sight of the other ninja and his mouth fell open.

"Kakashi? What happened!" spluttered Kotetsu.

Kakashi sighed. "If you want to know, ask them." He jabbed a finger at his teammates. "Now we seriously need to turn in our mission report and check in the hospital."

Kotetsu's face changed. "You're injured?"

"Somewhat. That was one hell of an S-rank."

Kotetsu let them threw, but not without a snigger in Kakashi's direction. "I wonder if you're new look is popular with the ladies."

Kakashi ignored him.

The made their way to the Hokage Tower, ignoring stares of passerby. Poor Kakashi had to endure the ribbing of his fellow teammates. Genma and Izumo were just relentless.

"Leave him alone! I think it looks youthful!" defended Guy.

This made it worse. Finally Kakashi snapped. "Shut up! It's your fault! You wouldn't let me borrow a kunai!"

Genma snorted. "Kakashi, nobody's hair grows that fast. You're a freak of nature."

"It's because my chakra is the same color as my hair! Look at Yugao Uzuki, it happens to her too!"

"She's a woman! Long hair is natural for them!" retorted Izumo.

They reached the door to Tsunade's office and pushed it open. They heard her before they saw her: terrorizing Ebisu's squad. Would she ever stop?

Shizune rushed in. "Lady Tsunade, Kakashi's squad is back!"

Tsunade stopped chasing Konohamaru and saw them standing in the doorway. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then she growled.

"You're a month late!" she accused. Then her jaw dropped. "K-Kakashi, what happened?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss this." muttered Kakashi. "We need to get to the hospital."

Kakashi and the other debriefed as quickly as possible, Kakashi uncomfortable because of Tsunade and Shizune's sniggers. Finally they were permitted to leave. Halfway out into the corridor Genma motioned for them all to be quiet. With a sinking feeling, Kakashi pressed his ear to the door.

He could hear Tsunade and Shizune laughing.

"Now we know why he never grew his hair out! We though it was because he would look like Sakumo, but now we know the truth!"

Shizune sounded like she was trying not to laugh. "Lady Tsunade, we shouldn't laugh. He didn't look very comfortable with it."

Tsunade ignored her. "What would you call that? A mullet? A crazy, wild mullet with spiky hair on top?"

Shizune burst into giggles and Kakashi abandoned the door. He wasn't listening to another second of being ridiculed.

His so-called friends followed him. It depressed him that the only one that didn't make fun of him was Guy. Was that not depressing?

Kakashi remembered the deep, bleeding gash on his arm and the four friends went to the hospital. Kakashi was silent the whole way there. He was attracting stares from villagers and ninja alike, and he was going to ignore them. Ignore them.

When they were in the hospital Sakura turned out to be their nurse. She walked into Kakashi's room, gazing at her clipboard.

"Ok, Kakashi-sensei, this is just a check up. In fact, I'm really happy to see you b-"

She cut off, catching sight of Kakashi's new do.

Genma and Izumo fell off their chairs from laughter.

"Genma wouldn't let me borrow a kunai to cut it." said Kakashi helplessly.

Sakura looked halfway between crying and laughing.

From her point of view, she was seeing her sensei for the first time in months, glad to have him back relatively unharmed. But she couldn't get past his hair. It was normal on top, still just as spiky. Sometime during the last few months he had lost his flak jacket, (which explained the lack of kunai) and his hair cascaded down his back in a tumultuous spiky wave.

It reached his butt. This fact tried to register itself in Sakura's brain, but her cranium rejected it several times.

"How did it grow so fast?" she managed to say after a long while.

"Chakra." he replied.

She tried to figure out what that meant from his woefully inadequate response. Chakra? What the hell did that mean?

Kakashi sighed. "Can you just bandage my arm so I can go home and cut my hair?"

The tenseness in the room was amazing.

"What do you mean, cut your hair?" asked Sakura.

"It looks stupid. I'm cutting it."

"Naruto and Sai haven't seen it yet! And neither has Kiba or Ino or Shikamaru or anyone else!" protested Sakura. "If you get to cut, who knows how long it'll be before you grow it out again?"

"I wonder why?" asked Kakashi sarcastically.

Genma shared a surprised glance with Guy and Izumo. "With thought you liked it."

Kakashi blushed. "I did, ok! Until you all started making fun of me for it I thought it was perfectly fine!"

Genma shrugged. "We were just teasing you. It doesn't look that bad."

"What about Tsunade and Shizune? And all the others that laughed at me?"

Genma whispered something into Sakura's ear. She smiled. "Great idea. Ok, Kakashi, we'll prove to you that it doesn't look bad."

"You almost laughed when you walked in." said Kakashi doubtfully.

"It was the shock, trust me, it looks good on you."

…xXx…

"This is such a bad idea." said Kakashi.

"No it isn't." said Genma.

"Yes it is." said Kakashi.

They argued for some time, causing Sakura to punch Genma.

"Why didn't you punch Kakashi?" he complained loudly.

"Because I didn't want to mess up his hair." she said sweetly. Kakashi winced.

"Why am I doing this?"

Without answering, Genma, Sakura, Izumo and Kotetsu (Guy had left to harass Neji) pushed Kakashi into the bar. This bar was used primarily by shinobi and at any other time he would have been glad to come here after such a long mission. Not today.

Kakashi tried to slide into a seat but Genma pushed him forward. "Mingle." he hissed.

Sighing, Kakashi approached Anko and Kurenai.

"You're not drinking, are you?" he asked with concern.

Kurenai shook her head. "I'm not dumb. And besides, I-"

She stopped abruptly, taking in his mane of hair.

"I'm, er, glad to see you've come back from the mission."

Kakashi felt the back of his head subconsciously. "Id've cut it by now, but I'm being forced into a bar so that my idiotic friends and student can somehow convince me that my hair looks good."

"It makes you look like a lion." acknowledged Anko.

Kakashi was prepared to leave right then.

"Not in a bad way." she added. "In fact, it makes you look sexy."

Kurenai nodded her agreement.

Kakashi felt heat rise to his face and he scurried back to where Sakura, Genma, Izumo and Kotetsu were waiting.

"So, are you going to cut it?" asked Genma nonchalantly.

"Anko says it makes me look sexy."

"And is that a good or bad thing?" asked Kotetsu. He and Izumo never really did get women, which would explain a lot.

Kakashi shrugged. "Depends on how you look at it."

"So are you going to cut it?" prodded Sakura.

"Depends on whether other women think it looks sexy. Anko's not my type."

Sakura laughed. "It does. I heard Shizune confessing her love for you in the hospital."

And though this too embarrassed Kakashi, he made a decision.

"Fine, I'll keep it. But let me go home. That was a long mission and I'm tired as hell."

* * *

So am I Kakashi, so am I...this is my third update/story in two days. I'm dying here. I haven't gone outside all day, so make me happy by R&R. You know what I mean! Review!


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